Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Summary of Findings While the national news media focused heavily on the 2008 presidential campaign last week, the public divided its interest between the campaign and the Iraq war. More than one-fifth of the national newshole (21%) was devoted to the presidential campaign, while news about the war — including the situation in Iraq, returning […]
The two biggest names in talk radio are telling their listeners how to separate the real conservatives from phonies. And some hosts seemed to “cover” the campaign by becoming part of the story.
Summary of Findings While the press focused heavily on the political turmoil in Pakistan last week, the public was interested in other things. The three news stories the public followed most closely last week, rising oil prices, the Iraq war and the recall of Chinese-made toys, received relatively little press coverage. The public’s top story […]
Negative Views of the US More Common Than Negative Views of China
The two leading Democrats once again attracted more coverage than any of their GOP rivals in the race for media exposure last week. But the GOP overall tipped the scales in what became a big boost for Mitt Romney, both in Michigan and in the media.
Summary of Findings Even as the 2008 presidential campaign draws increasing news coverage, the public shows limited awareness of the personal backgrounds of some of the top GOP candidates. While 86% of the public is able to name Rudy Giuliani as the former mayor of New York City, only about half as many — 42% […]
Summary of Findings Man-made and natural disasters dominated the list of the public’s top news stories in 2007. Nearly half of Americans (45%) tracked news about the shootings of 33 students at Virginia Tech University very closely, while nearly as many paid very close attention to reports on the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the California […]
Summary of Findings There has been no shortage of drama in either party’s early presidential primaries, but in the public’s view the Democratic contest has been far more compelling. Four-in-ten Americans (40%) say they find the Democratic primary race very interesting, nearly double the proportion describing the Republican race as very interesting (21%). While press […]
Dennis Kucinich’s call to impeach Vice President Cheney made nary a blip with the general media last week but it was a big story on in the talk media, especially on the left side of the talk radio dial. Meanwhile the many angles of the 2008 campaign gave everyone grist to talk about.
John McCain and Hillary Clinton both walked away with crucial New Hampshire victories but the Arizona Republican trailed the New York Democrat badly in the battle for media attention. And why the media treated Mike Huckabee’s third-place finish much differently than John Edwards’.